There is an increasing need to fly Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) to perform missions of vital importance to national security and defense, emergency management, science, and to enable commercial applications. However, routine access by UAS to the NAS remains unrealized. 

The UAS community needs routine access to the global airspace for all classes of UAS. Based on this need, NASA's UAS Integration in the NAS Project identified the following goal: To provide research findings to reduce technical barriers associated with integrating UAS into the NAS utilizing integrated system level tests in a relevant environment. These barriers include: a lack of sense-and-avoid concepts and technologies that can operate within the NAS, robust communication technologies, robust human systems integration, and a relevant environment for use in testing the developed technologies.

The project's goal will be accomplished by developing system-level integration of key concepts, technologies and/or procedures, as well as demonstrating those integrated capabilities in an operationally relevant environment. 

The project conducts research to address technical barriers in the following areas:

• Sense and Avoid (SAA) [synonymous with Detect and Avoid (DAA)] Performance Standards: Provide research findings to develop and validate UAS Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for SAA performance and interoperability.
• Command and Control (C2) Performance Standards: Provide research findings to develop and validate UAS MOPS for terrestrial C2 communication.
• Human Systems Integration (HSI): Provide research findings to develop and validate HSI ground control station (GCS) guidelines enabling implementation of the SAA and C2 performance standards.
• Integrated Test and Evaluation (IT&E): Develop a relevant test environment that is a live virtual constructive (LVC) distributed environment (DE), for use in generating research findings to develop and validate HSI guidelines, DAA, and C2 MOPS with test scenarios supporting integration of UAS into the NAS.

These activities support research within the aeronautics strategic thrust area 6. 

Strategic technology development to support future ExEP projects.

The LEARN Project explores the creation of novel concepts and processes with the potential to create new capabilities in aeronautics research through awards to the external community including university and industry teams. The LEARN Project incorporates a competitive review process of the external teams’ proposals to develop integrated solutions for complex technical problems captured in the ARMD strategic thrusts, followed by short duration activities for feasibility assessment. Follow-on phases of the most promising ideas are also funded. LEARN also utilizes challenges and prizes to the external community.  With these processes, NASA funds also help catalyze investments from the aerospace and non-aerospace communities toward solving problems aligned with NASA interests.

The NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI) has been established to achieve the LEARN Project’s goals.  NARI will complement other ARMD efforts in seeking early-stage innovative concepts applicable to a broad spectrum of aeronautical challenges in the nation’s air transportation system by sponsoring research solicitations and by hosting future competitive challenges. The Institute will coordinate these efforts and communicate the outcome of the research conducted to interested parties both internal and external to NASA. ARMD’s goal is to mature the new concepts in order to infuse them into current ARMD research programs, to enable new avenues of aeronautics research that are not currently supported by ARMD program and project funds, or to achieve practical application by the aeronautics community.

The methodology developed under this grant is primarily an effort to develop new sub-payload technologies and an inexpensive method of testing them. The three technical goals are: (1) to improve and test the existing spring sub-payload ejection system and rocket propelled ejection system, (2) to test the performance of ampule-deployed radar chaff (rather than TMA) to track high altitude winds, and (3) to develop and test sensor and telemetry packages to monitor the attitude stability and position of deployed sub-payloads.  The proposed effort will also demonstrate very low cost, low altitude rockets as an inexpensive flight test of payloads prior to expensive sounding rocket deployments. The payloads tested on 5 to 7 low-cost rockets will be (1) foil chaff designed for radar tracking of mesospheric winds, (2) plasma instruments composed of GPS monitors, magnetometers, and accelerometers, and (3) android phones for the investigation of off-the-shell instrumentation and telemetry.  Finally, a campaign of 2 to 4 sounding rocket deployments on ‘as-available’ flights from Poker Flats will be used to test spring ejection without spin up, spring ejection with spin up for sub-payload attitude control, and rocket ejection

Cutting edge customer driven research in two areas:

Aerosciences, including the completion and delivery of two new aerothermal CFD codes, a first ever validated shock layer radiation model, and an experimental validationdatabase, at flight-relevant enthalpy, for current and future generations.

EDL Materials, including the development and delivery of two new flexible TPS systems to enable HIAD missions, vastly improved ablator modeling capability, and improved polymer resins to enhance or enable future developments in woven, flexible and conformal thermal protection systems.

Overview

GMAT is a feature rich system containing high fidelity space system models, optimization and targeting,
built in scripting and programming infrastructure, and customizable plots, reports and data
products, to enable flexible analysis and solutions for custom and unique applications. GMAT can
be driven from a fully featured, interactive GUI or from a custom script language. Here are some
of GMAT’s key features broken down by feature group.

Dynamics and Environment Modelling

• High fidelity dynamics models including harmonic gravity, drag, tides, and relativistic corrections
• High fidelity spacecraft modeling
• Formations and constellations
• Impulsive and finite maneuver modeling and optimization
• Propulsion system modeling including tanks and thrusters
• Solar System modeling including high fidelity ephemerides, custom celestial bodies, libration points, and barycenters
• Rich set of coordinate system including J2000, ICRF, fixed, rotating, topocentric, and many others
• SPICE kernel propagation
• Propagators that naturally synchronize epochs of multiple vehicles and avoid fixed step integration
• and interpolation

Plotting, Reporting and Product Generation

• Interactive 3-D graphics
• Customizable data plots and reports
• Post computation animation
• CCSDS, SPK, and Code-500 ephemeris generation

Optimization and Targeting

• Boundary value targeters
• Nonlinear, constrained optimization
• Custom, scriptable cost functions
• Custom, scriptable nonlinear equality and inequality constraint functions
• Custom targeter controls and constraints

Programming Infrastructure

• User defined variables, arrays, and strings
• User defined equations using MATLAB syntax. (i.e. overloaded array operation)
• Control flow such as If, For, and While loops for custom applications
• Matlab interface
• Built in parameters and calculations in multiple coordinate systems

Interfaces

• Fully featured, interactive GUI that makes simple analysis quick and easy
• Custom scripting language that makes complex, custom analysis possible
• Matlab interface for custom external simulations and calculations
• File interface for the TCOPS Vector Hold

The Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) Project uses short-duration activities to establish early-stage concept and technology feasibility for high-potential solutions. Internal teams propose ideas for overcoming key barriers associated with large-scale aeronautics problems associated with ARMD’s six strategic thrusts. The teams will conduct initial feasibility studies, perform experiments, try out new ideas, identify failures, and try again. At the end of the cycle, a review determines whether the developed solutions have met their goals, established initial feasibility, and identified potential for future aviation impact. During these reviews, the most promising capabilities will be considered for continued development further by other ARMD programs or by direct transfer to the aviation community. In the dynamic environment of new ideas, ARMD also gains significant value from the knowledge gained in activities that do not proceed.

In order to enable new capabilities in commercial aviation, the CAS Project’s focus is on merging traditional aeronautics disciplines with advancements driven by the non-aeronautics world.  The Project will draw on external collaborators to supplement in-house NASA expertise in technologies and disciplines that broadly support advancements in all ARMD strategic thrusts.

Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) geophysical data were collected in California as a part of AEM pilot studies. The purpose of the AEM pilot studies was to inform the development of the Department of Water Resources’ (DWR’s) statewide AEM survey project. The AEM pilot studies were conducted in three areas: Butte and Glenn Counties, San Luis Obispo County, and Indian Wells Valley. The AEM surveys were conducted from 2018 through 2020 and were led by Stanford University with participants from the academic and private sectors, and local and state water agencies. All data used, collected, or created as a part of the AEM pilot studies are provided here. The AEM pilot studies were funded by grants from DWR, the Ministry of Denmark, and three local agencies (Butte County, Indian Wells Valley Water District, and San Luis Obispo County - Paso Robles). Pilot study participants included Stanford University, Aarhus University, Aqua Geo Frameworks, Ramboll, I-GIS, SkyTEM, University of California Davis, California State University Sacramento, California State University Chico, Parker Groundwater, the Danish Water Technology Alliance, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Glenn County Department of Water Resource Conservation, Butte County Department of Water Conservation, Indian Wells Valley Water District, and San Luis Obispo County.

The project is building the first prototype integrated system to mitigate solar event risk through probabilistic modeling, forecasting, and dose projection. This new capability will provide mission operators with tools to assist in mission planning and design, assessment of ‘worst-case’ radiation dose, prediction of event occurrence, and projection of cumulative radiation dose once an event has begun.  Tools are being built utilizing historical satellite data spanning four decades, satellite imagery of the Sun, and large-scale first-principles simulations of the inner heliospheric environment.